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The Mathematics of Futurama
mclearn writes "Did you know that the writers of Futurama have a collective set of degrees that would rival most think tanks? Here is a hilarious site on the mathematics of Futurama -- specifically this article (pdf). The same authors have also researched the mathematics of the Simpsons, mentioned on Slashdot long ago."
The site seems to be slashdotted.
Here is Googles' Cache.
How about going to the Google Cache whilst you enjoy your alien-worm excrement!
holy crap that was fast. Site's basically dead after 10 comments. I'm trying to get a mirror up at:t hsci.appstate.edu/%257Esjg/simpsonsmath/futuramama th/
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~pnelson/www.ma
So far I have the index page and a few pictures, but they'll go up as I get them.
'The Farnsworth Paradox' is proof that Futurama is too good for mainstream viewing.
An work of genius unappreciated by an audience forever presented with reality tv nobrainer shows.
"I've been as dumb as Fry"
"No I'm doesn't!"
Well, executive producer David Cohen has a B.S. in computer science from U.C. Berkeley, and a B.A. in physics from Harvard.
Finkployd
link to PDF
-=no karma whoring=-
A google.com cache link.
Take care.
K3n.
That was technology, not mathematics.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
I hate to be a twit, but in this one case I'm gonna say it:
Buy the DVDs!
The show was funny and deserves the support of its fans.
Man, I'll copy DVDs of crappy Hollywood movies I get from Netflix all day long, but those TV Show boxed sets I buy the day they come out. 20 or so hours of entertainment for $50 (or $20 on ebay). They seem like a pretty good deal to me.
I've come to the conclusion that the only way that anyone will make more TV I'd actually like to watch is if I spend money on the things that have been produced already. They wouldn't keep making Star Trek crap if people weren't buying the old stuff.
All that said, I see at least the entire first season on suprnova.org right now.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
> "Well, sure. For example, Bender's serial number is 1729, a historically significant integer to mathematicians everywhere; that "joke" alone is worth six years of grad school, I'd say."
For us non-math-geeks here's a bit on 1729
Among other things "It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways."
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Simplye math on the part of Fox
Simpsons = Fox owns completely
Futurama = Groening owns (mostly? completely?)
That is, Fox did not have as large a stake in the show as with the Simpsons.
Couple that with the crapload of pre-emptions for football, etc. and Fox probably figured they could get the same ratings Futurama got by swinging a dead cat of thier own rather than Greonings'
Others can probably fill in more detail here but that's about the gist of it...
Erm, neither 13, 123, 93 or 103 are cubes. What you mean is 1729 = 1000 + 729 = 1728 + 1, or 1729 = 10^3 + 9^3 = 12^3 + 1^3.
qntm.org
Aliens wiping out the earth was in the pilot episode. When Fry is in the cyro tube it shows the world being destroyed by flying saucers, then being rebuilt to around a bronze age and being destroyed again. I think it was mainly a satire of The Time Machine.
Learn something new.
Ken Keeler has a PhD in Applied Math and a Masters in Electrical Engineering.
David Cohen has a bachelors in Physics and a Masters in Computer Science.
Bill Odenkirk has a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry.
Jeff Westbrook has a PhD in Computer Science.
J. Burns has a bachelors in Mathematics.
Ryan
loosing focus
Damnit - Just one day - ONE DAY - is all I ask without having to read the word loosing! Idiot!
And here is a link to the cache of the PDF itself, for the truly lazy
Why not fork?
RTFA, please.
David X. Cohen, Batchelors in Math, Harvard; Masters ComSci, Berzerkeley
Ken Keeler, PhD in Applied Math and Masters in EE
Bill Odenkirk, PhD in Inorganic Chem
Jeff Westbrook PhD in ComSci
J. Stewart Burns, Batchelors in Math, Harvard; Masters in Math Berkeley
Perhaps a bit more hard-sciency than the PolSci asshats that populate the average Think Tank.
On a similar note, but a bit more subtle is Bender's apartment number: 00100100
(that's a '$', for the non-ASCII literate)
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
I never laughed so hard during the Simpsons as when I heard the guy say that.
For a recap, they're talking about how a certain cliff is popular for being used in suicides. And a geek (sounded like the Krusty-Burger fry cook shouts as he's leaping: "Why did they Cancel Futuramaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!?????"
I think that was a good dig by Groening. Fox really shafted them from the beginning. I think he even said so much in an interview.
Man, I miss Futurama. I think I'm gonna watch the DVD's again when I get home tonight.
--
E_NOSIG
Twisted relationships
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
http://users.cis.net/sammy/grandpa.htm I remember when my teacher in high school played this while we were studying genetics.
The "grandfather paradox" (what if I went back in time and killed my grandfather - thus my father would never be born, thus I would never exist, thus I couldn't go back in time and commit the murder, so my grandfather would live, so my father would be born, so...) is a sci-fi cliche. Their take on it was great!
Fry, trying to protect his "grandfather", ends up killing him, only to be seduced by his grandmother (believing, in his half-witted way, that since his "grandfather" is dead, his grandmother can't really be his grandmother) and becomes his own grandather. It's gross, it's ironic, it's funny.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle says that you can know either the position or velocity of a subatomic particle, but not both. Further refined, the better you estimate velocity, the worse your estimate of position and vice versa.
c at
;)
Schroedinger's Cat, however, illustrates the wavefunction of a quantum particle...the cat is either alive or dead, but you can't know which until you check. Whether you look or not doesn't influence the cat's mortality rate. You can say that it's the measurement (opening the box) that causes the cat to live or die, but the cat already was in that state when you checked. That is the essential problem raised by this thought experiment.
Check this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%F6dinger%27s_
and note that the word "uncertainty" does not appear. Of course, it might appear on the page, and it might not...you won't know until you click on it.
So your analogy holds between the webserver and the cat, but the uncertainty principle is not involved. That is what I'm trying to clarify.
(BTW, this is a stupid argument. Clearly we are both bored at work.)
By symmetry each of his grandparents (not
including himself) must have contributed 1/3
of his genetic information.
And that be the way it 'tis.
San Diego Padres, 100 Park Blvd, San Diego CA 92101
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by
No need. Slashdot includes a Futurama quote with every single page served (in the HTTP headers).
On the Simpsons when Lisa sees Comic Book Guy's TShirt
... well some just stun you with how perfect, and yet how obcure they are. It's like a little gift from the writers to you. :)
C:\Dos
C:\Dos\Run
Run Dos\Run
LISA:Ha, only one person in a million would find that funny!
COMIC BOOK GUY: Yes, we call that the "Dennis Miller Ratio."
MST3K is much the same of course - references whizzing past your ears through the whole show, some you get and some you don't. And some
Kevin
Back in the very early days of alt.tv.simpsons (circa 1992), one of the regular contributors was a Dave Cohen. Already knowing that he contributed to National Lampoon ('baby elephant walk...'), I've always wondered if Futurama's D.X.C might have been him.
:-P :-)
(Of course, doing a Google now confirms it. I've been out of the loop for too long...)
Cue the remark about fans becoming too involved with a favourite show...
--
Chris Baird,,(a.t.s FAQ maintainer 1992-1993)
It was always there.
Wonderful, isn't it?
I guess that explains why Bender is based on the 6502 cpu!
I have the Region 1 DVDs and the shadow is there. In fact, it is referenced in the audio commentary with shouts of "SECRET!"